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Pierce Hawthorne
'Piercinald Anastasia "Pierce" Hawthorne '(November 27, 1944 - 2013) is a character in the NBC/Yahoo! sitcom Community. He is played and voiced by Chevy Chase. Pierce's father Cornelius was the founder of Hawthorne Wipes, an award-winning moist towelette company. Pierce claims to be a world traveler, a toastmaster, magician, keyboardist and self-styled hypnotherapist, and considers himself a "quality-of-life person". Like Britta Perry, he is often used as a scapegoat by other members of the Study Group. Pierce is much older than the other students at Greendale, and is unfamiliar with youth culture. Pierce's boorish and abrasive personality was a direct result of his upbringing. His life of luxury insulated him and made it hard for him to understand typical social norms. Adding to this was him being raised by his father Cornelius who passed on his racist and bigoted beliefs. This attitude he was raised on, coupled with his lack of tact, had gotten him into trouble as he constantly made outrageous statements unaware of how rude and offensive they were. His father was also emotionally abusive towards Pierce when he was a child often undercutting him and making him feel worthless. In his adulthood this led him to over exaggerate his abilities and competency in various areas. Pierce was also fairly gullible; this was evidenced in his participation with a religious movement known as "Reformed Neo Buddhism" that his friends and mother warned him was just a cult. Pierce also unknowingly buys into many sexist and racist stereotypes which often lead him to make offensive statements, the nature of which he's completely unaware. Much of this is directed at Shirley, whom he sometimes mistakes for other black women ("The Art of Discourse"); Abed, whom he suspects being a terrorist because he is Muslim; and Jeff, whom he actively tries to insult in an attempt to be cool, despite his inability to do so with wit. This leads Troy to start up a Twitter account with 600,000 followers called "oldwhitemansays" ("Anthropology 101"), documenting anything outrageous said by Pierce. When he finds out, he becomes infuriated at Troy until Troy reveals the number of followers, prompting Pierce to encourage Troy to keep the account going. After his behavior became untenable in Season 2, the study group put Pierce on a "diet" with a strict limit on when and how often he can say offensive things.("Custody Law and Eastern European Diplomacy") Although he has occasionally made rude comments about Jews, he has also said that Annie Edison (the only Jewish member of the group) is his favorite person in it ("Intermediate Documentary Filmmaking"). It is also suspected that he has subdued feelings for the second youngest female in the group, Britta Perry. Given his age and his eccentricity, Pierce occasionally surprises his friends with wise insight and support when they truly need it. Biography Pierce's father was a wealthy moist towelette tycoon, which resulted in him being given leisurely lifestyle. In his younger years he lived it up, marrying seven times and accumulating over thirty step-children. However, later in life he found himself alone and unhappy. In an attempt to cure his malaise, he started several hobbies including traveling the world, becoming a Toastmaster, performing magic, and playing the piano. In 1999 he returned to school to further expand his horizons and enrolled in Greendale Community College. He stayed for over a decade before finally graduating in 2013. In his final years at school he joined a Spanish study group and despite a few rocky moments they became his longest lasting friendships. With their help he coped with the death of both his parents, discovered that his father's assistant Gilbert Lawson was his half-brother and dealt with being fired as Hawthorne Wipes C.E.O by the board of directors. During this time he became an entrepreneur and invested his money in various business's. This included fellow study group member Shirley Bennet's sandwich shop in which he became a co-owner. Pierce passed away not long after he and the study group officially graduated from school. Before dying he built a Gender Sensitivity and Sexual Potency museum on the Greendale campus and finalized his will. Season 1 Pierce was invited to a Spanish Study group by Abed where he met Jeff, Britta, Troy, Annie, Shirley. He desperately tried to become best friends with Jeff but upon being rejected started a more adversarial relationship with him. After bragging about his musical abilities, Annie hired him to write Greendale's new school song. Pierce's "expertise" at identifying racial, ethnic and cultural stereotypes was called upon by Dean Pelton to create the school's politically correct mascot the Greendale Human Being. Over the semester, his relationship with the study group experienced some ups and downs. At one point he humiliated Shirley after pulling a prank on her. He refused to apologize and was he kicked out of the group for it. Shirley left the group as well feeling that she wasn't respected. Eventually he and Shirley reached an understanding after they helped Jeff and Britta deal with some obnoxious teenagers. The two returned to the group after realizing how much they were needed. Pierce also spent the semester romancing a fellow student as well as a a teacher. Despite help from Jeff, he was unable to form a familial bond with his ex-stepdaughter Amber. When Troy was kicked out of his house by his father, Pierce offered to let him stay at his mansion. Season 2 Pierce started the new year with Troy as his roommate. When Pierce's mother passed away he took her death in stride since he believed in the tenets of their religion which promised her eventual rebirth. He temporarily joined Leonard's group of Hipsters and started to become paranoid about being excluded from the study group's activities. His behavior became more erratic and unbearable after he suffered an injury and began to over medicating on pain pills. The group held a vote over whether or not to invite him back to the group next year which he accidentally walked in on. Pierce blamed Jeff for being left out of yet another group activity and took advantage of the annual paintball tournament to get revenge. He created a safe zone from the contest in the cafeteria called "Fort Hawthorne" and after reuniting with the group secretly loaded Jeff's paintball pistolfull of blanks. His friends confronted Pierce after learning of his betrayal and he quit the study group. After City College's involvement in the paintball contest is revealed, Pierce surprisingly became the savior of Greendale when he won the contest and the prize of $100,000. Afterwards he refused an offer from the study group to rejoin stating he was done with them. Season 3 Pierce spends the summer with his Buddhist sect and returns to the study group claiming to be a changed man. After learning that there is a market for Hawthorne Wipes products for the Gay community, Pierce tries to begin marketing the product to them. This gets the attention of his father who disapproves of his decision. Jeff tries to stick up for Pierce but ends up causing Cornelius to have a heart attack which he dies from. The Hawthorne Wipes board of directors remove Pierce as C.E.O. of the company. During a wake held in the cafeteria he helps to incite a riot which gets him and the study group kicked out of Greendale. He attends a reading of his father's will and learns that his father's personal assistant Gilbert Lawson is his half brother. He later takes part in an elaborate plan to save the Greendale and Dean Pelton from Ben Chang. After being reinstated at school, Pierce fights for sole ownership rights over the Sandwich shop business venture he started with Shirley. He enlists the legal aid of Alan Conner to help him while Jeff represents Shirley in the dispute. After a passionate speech, Jeff convinces Pierce to drop his case. Pierce then suggests that Jeff be named as a representative for his and Shirley's business venture. Season 4 Pierce and the study group return for their fourth year at school. While watching Jeff compete in the "Hunger Deans" he struggles to make a joke out of the contest. He attends the "Inspecticon" convention with Shirley and they end up participating in a focus group on an American version of "Inspector Spacetime". On Halloween, Pierce claims to be trapped inside his mansion's the panic room in order to lure the study group there. He tries to teach them a lesson about going to Vicki's party without him by pretending the mansion is haunted. Pierce's shenanigans ends up revealing that there actually is an unknown presence in his house in the form of his half-brother Gilbert. He is invited along with Abed, Annie and Troy to Shirley's Thanksgiving Day dinner with her in-laws. Pierce invites Jeff to an old fashioned barbershop and the two end up bonding over their mutual father issues. After 13 years at school, Pierce decides to finally graduate from Greendale in order to do so before Jeff does. Season 5 After the study group members graduated from Greendale they all went their separate ways. When Jeff returns to the school to research a case he is working on, the group shows up too. However, Pierce is conspicuously not there for the reunion although his absence is obliquely referenced. Feeling Greendale is responsible for how miserable all their lives have become, Jeff manipulates the study group into suing the school. Jeff is intent on pursuing the class action law suit until he gets a shocking surprise. He sees a hologram of Pierce which had been installed in front of the Library. It was put there as a small part of a sexual harassment lawsuit settlement Pierce was involved in. Although Pierce's prerecorded message is specifically about announcing a new campus Gender Sensitivity and Sexual Potency museum named after him, it serves to remind a Jeff about all that is good about Greendale. Jeff changes his mind and instead accepts a teaching position at school as a Law professor while the rest of the study group reenrolls. Not long afterwards, the group learns about Pierce's death. They are then contacted by a man named Mr.Stone who is carrying out Pierce's will. Stone informs them that in order to be considered for a share of Pierce's fortune they must each submit to a polygraph test. After enduring the inquest which exposes a few uncomfortable revelations about the study group, Stone delivers Pierce's final words to his friends. Each receives a canister of Pierce's sperm along with their personal bequeathals: He tells Britta to stop hating herself and gives her an iPod Nano, Shirley is told that he always respected her and is given his time share in Florida, Annie is reminded she was always his favorite and is requeathed the tiara he tried to give her years ago, Jeff is told he is gay before receiving a fine bottle of scotch, Abed is told that he is crazy and Troy is praised as having "the heart of a hero". Troy is also awarded Pierce's share of Hawthorne Wipes valued at 14 million dollars. Troy is told in order to claim his bequeathal he must sail around the world, a task Pierce failed to do when asked by his father to earn his fortune. Later at a bar, Mr. Stone later revealed that Pierce died from dehydration from filling up those cylinders. Category:Male Category:Human Category:Sitcom characters Category:TV characters Category:Community characters Category:Deceased Characters